Monday Links 3/17/14: Malaysia Airlines, Crimea, and more

It’s Monday, and we still don’t know where Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is, but that hasn’t stopped CNN from speculating. What’s new? This past week, a food processing plant was shutdown in Nanjing for using hydrogen peroxide, Chinese cities were found to have experienced high increases in housing prices, and the stories of police officers responding to the Kunming attack were told. These stories topped ChinaHush last week, and the Monday Links include more from elsewhere in China:

Links

Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin” Leaks to Piracy Sites (Hollywood Reporter) – Jia’s film, which follows disgruntled and struggling Chinese, won best screenplay at Cannes, but it is still awaiting approval for its release in the Chinese market. The film includes depictions of violence committed by some characters. It has been leaked on piracy websites, but the leaked version doesn’t include subtitles, and the film includes four Chinese dialects, including Cantonese.

Censorship instructions call for article thanking Vietnam to be deleted, others (China Digital Times) – Among some of the articles to be deleted includes an article about China’s foreign minister thanking Vietnam for helping in the Malaysia Airlines flight search. The article (cached here) is no longer available. Can’t let the Chinese people feel any goodwill toward Vietnam when the Spratly Islands are under dispute now, can you?

Shanghai bans taxi drivers from using booking apps during peak hours (Tech In Asia) – Because some drivers were ignoring people hailing cabs on the street in favor of people booking on the Kuaidi and Didi apps, which could generate better fares, the use of the apps by drivers was banned during peak hours. In January, Kuaidi was offering 15 yuan discounts to riders on every fare and also paying drivers 15 yuan subsidies.

Netizens Compare Lost Qing Dynasty Territory to Crisis in Crimea (ChinaSmack) – Here is one of the reasons why China isn’t standing strongly behind their often alley Russia on Russia’s actions in Crimea: Russia’s same argument was used to take land from China towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. One of the lands involved, however, was Mongolia, now an independent country.

China’s Self-Media: Now Endangered? (Foreign Policy) – Blog/microblog feeds on WeChat were shut down.

“Double Consciousness” and the Future of Uyghur Pride (the art of life in chinese central asia) – Uyghur’s struggle to define their identity, with the questions of ethnic pride, national pride, and discrimination pushing in different directions.

Kindergarten students in Xi’an and Jilin given prescription drugs without their parents’ consent – After allegations broke that over 1,000 kindergarten students were given prescription drugs without their parents’ consent or knowledge, schools around the country are coming under scrutiny. In Shaanxi, where Xi’an is the provincial capital, the government warned schools not to distribute drugs without authorization (China Daily). In Jilin province, a private kindergarten was closed after it was exposed giving prescription drugs to students (Shanghai Daily). One teacher told the students he was giving them “smart beans” and told them not to tell their parents. The drugs are only for treatment, not prevention, and they can cause side effects like nausea, night sweats and rashes.

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